Step-by-step Rooting & Flashing guide for Optimus S.

You've probably known for a while that rooting and flashing your Optimus S with a custom ROM will give your Optimus S much better performance, more available RAM for applications, and great new functionality (while optionally removing unwanted Sprint software or nagware). Perhaps you looked into doing it before but you saw that the old rooting methods were difficult and that many of the guides were confusing, scary, time-consuming, and targeted at savvy techies using techie lingo. That's a shame because nowadays it's easy to root and flash while keeping your old apps, settings, & data. And the benefits are amazing. So...This is a step-by-step, spoon-fed guide to rooting & flashing for beginners who are still using Sprint's stock firmware.

What is rooting & flashing?
Rooting a phone gives you "root" administrative privileges to do things on your phone that normally aren't possible. If you're familiar with Microsoft Windows, "root" access would be like having an "administrator" account instead of havng a "guest" account. Without root access, you essentially only have a "guest" account on your own phone! With root access, you can install certain root-only programs (like Titanium Backup) and install (or "flash") custom ROMs.

What are custom ROMs?
A ROM is a nickname for the firmware that's stored on your phone's Flash ROM. (Read-Only Memory.) It contains the Android operating system and the user interface customizations that make your phone look and act a certain way. (Just like Windows 7 looks and acts differently than Windows XP.)

What is a custom recovery?
A "custom recovery" is a little program that you can invoke at power-on by simultaneously pressing the "Home" + "Volume Down" + "Power" buttons until the LG logo appears. (Several seconds later the "recovery" screen will appear. Custom recoveries can do things like backing-up, restoring, wiping data, or loading new ROMS/firmware. Your phone comes with a "stock recovery" (from Sprint) but it's not very powerful and it does not enable you to install custom ROMs or do system backups & restores. The stock recovery basically just allows you to wipe your data and install stock ROMs (not custom ROMs). The most widely used custom recoveries are "Xonia" (a.k.a. "Xonia CWMA") and Cannibal Open Touch (or "COT").

What are are the benefits of flashing a custom ROM?
Independent software developers create ROMs that are better than stock ROMs in that they typically include performance improvements, built-in functionality (like WiFi tethering, customizable themes, and automatic switching between WiFi & 3G), and remove unwanted programs (like the nagging Sprint Zone), thereby making more internal memory available for your applications and data. Custom ROM developers may also release advanced versions of the Android operating system, whereas the phone maker may not. For example, as of now, there are alpha & beta versions of the Android 4.0 operating system (code named "Ice Cream Sandwich", or "ICS") for the Optimus S by some developers, but LG will never release ICS for the Optimus S-- even though ICS will yield a nice improvement in functionality. (Please consider donating money to these developers for their great work.)

What's a baseband and why does the version matter?
Basically, your phone's OS essentially has two parts: (1) the baseband, which controls the cellular/3G radio (sort of like a radio "driver"), and (2) the ROM/firmware, that works in conjunction with that baseband to make your phone look and act like it does. All of the basebands work fine so there is no real advantage to having a newer baseband. But custom-ROMs only work with certain basebands, so you have to be sure to make them match properly. (See below for how to determine your basebaned version.) As of May 2013, by far most of the custom ROM development for the Optimus is centered around putting ICS & Jellybean onto the Optimus S-- and mostly on the ZVD baseband (though there are now ZVJ-to-ZVD compatibility patches available. If you want ICS or Jellybean on your Optimus S, then I think it's best to use the ZVD baseband. However, as cool as ICS is, it's basically too big to properly fit onto the Optimus and for me there are too many showstopper bugs in ICS (which have persisted for over a year and seem to be unfixable), so I'm very happily on ZVJ/Gingerbread-based DanteROM. If you are on baseband version ZV8, ZV9, ZVC, or ZVH, you can follow the instructions in the APPENDIX section below to make your phone an unrooted, stock ZVD Sprint Optimus S, and then (if you like) follow the instructions from there to upgrade to Sprint's stock firmware or install a custom-ROM.

How do I determine which baseband version I have?
From the home screen, hit the "Settings" button, select "Settings" and then "About phone". Scroll down to "Baseband version". It'll be something like, "LS670ZVD..." or "LS670MVD..." or "LS670ZVH...", etc. There's no meaningful difference between a "Z" and an "M" so, for example, as far as this guide is concerned, consider "MVD" to be "ZVD" and "MVH" to be "ZVH", etc. (It's just become common to call them by their "Z" name so for example, I'll collectively refer to both "ZVD" and "MVD" as "ZVD". Make a note of which baseband you have. This is really important because certain ROMs only work on certain baseband software versions. Loading a mismatched ROM won't damage your phone but you probably couldn't use it for phone calls or 3G until you re-flashed it with an appropriate ROM (using steps #4, & 6-12 below).

What if I have ZVJ?
If you've accepted the new ZVJ update (released around April 2012), it's possible to root it by "downgrading" to stock ZVD (using the instructions in the Appendix below) and then rooting using the guide below. At that point you can install a custom ZVD ROM. Or you can use the instructions here to get a rooted ZVJ. As of late May 2013, there is one very good ZVJ-based custom ROM available called DanteROM. It's what I use and I recommend it over any of the ZVD ROMs if you need a rock-solid, bug-free ROM. There are some ZVJ-ZVD patches that enable you to run ZVD ROMs on a ZVJ phone-- including the very cool (though buggy) ICS ROMs. But the support for patched phones is weaker so if you're intent on installing ICS, then stick with ZVD.

Will I have to re-install all of my apps & redo all of my settings on the custom ROM?
Yes & no. This guide utilizes the "batch" backup & restore features of the free app, Titanium Backup, so that you can easily backup your apps, settings, and data to your SD card. Then after you've installed a custom ROM you'll again use Titanium Backup to "batch" restore your apps, settings, and data from your SD card. It's pretty painless. You'll still have to rearrange your desktop on the custom ROM, but basically, your apps, data, and settings will be there.

Can I change custom ROMS?
Yes... and it'll be even easier after the 1st time because you'll have already done half the work (rooting & backing up.) Instructions are below.

Will I still get firmware updates from Sprint?
Probably not. Chances are that your custom ROM will intentionally prevent Sprint's firmware updates. If Sprint notifies you of an update, you should refuse it because you may end up with a baseband mismatch (as described above). The Sprint firmware won't be as good as your custom ROM anyway. And you can always restore the phone to stock firmware if you like.

Can I restore the phone to the stock Sprint firmware?
Yes. Just follow the instructions in the Appendix (at the bottom) to restore your phone to stock Sprint "ZVD" software, unrooted, so nobody would even know that it's been rooted or customized.

Will rooting and flashing void my warranty?
Technically, yes. But you can restore your phone to stock Sprint firmware as mentioned above.

Disclaimers:
Standard disclaimers apply... This could ruin your phone, your life, the planet, etc, but if you follow these instructions, it's higly unlikely. Officially, rooting will void your warranty. I accept no liability for any problems that may occur from using this guide.

Prerequisites. This guide assumes that:
A) You're using a PC with a working USB driver. (If not, download it from LG's website HERE).
B) That you know how to connect your phone to your PC via USB
C) That you know how to copy files between your PC & your phone's SD card.
D) That you know how to delete files.
E) You have stock firmware & recovery with a baseband version ZVD or ZVH that you want to keep. (See above explanations.)

Ready? Here we go...

1) Make room: Make sure that you have about 500MB of free space on your SD card. You'll only need this space temporarily, so if you don't have enough space, you might want to temporarily move some music or video files to your PC. If there are any Sprint apps (like SprintTV, NASCAR, Football, or Music Plus) that you think you might want to take with you, make sure that they're installed so that we can back them up. Make sure that your phone has at least a 50% battery charge since you don't want to run out of power in the middle of this process.

2) Root your phone and install the Xonia CWMA custom recovery. Here's how:
--A) Download optiauto-sfx.exe to the C: drive of your PC.--B) Make sure your SD card is installed.--C) Make sure USB Debugging is enabled. Menu->Settings-> Applications-> Development-> USB debugging.
--D) Make sure USB Storage Mode is off. (Drag down the notification bar. "USB Connected" should be green.)--E) Make sure that you have a working LG/USB driver installed.--F) Make sure that the phone is connected to USB port and recognized by the PC.--G) Make sure that the phone is turned on.--H) Make sure that the phone screen is unlocked.
--I) Some (not all) antivirus programs may block optiauto-sfx.exe because it's an Android "exploit" (which is exactly why we use it), so you should probably temporarily turn-off your anti-virus software.
--J) Launch optiauto-sfx.exe on your PC. Select option "A". The program will run and it will let you know whether or not it worked. If it works, it'll say, "It's a GG man!" and you'll have root access to your phone (thereby allowing you to run certain programs) with the Xonia CWMA Custom Recovery installed.
--K) At the end, your phone will reboot and will look normal, but it will be rooted with the Xonia Custom Recovery installed.
--L) Turn on your antivirus software if you turned it off in step I above.

3) Do a Titanium Backup so that once you install a new ROM, you can easily restore all of your current apps, settings, and data to the new ROM. Here's how:

3A- Install Titanium Backup (free app) from the Play Store. Give it root access and do whatever it tells you to do at startup.

3C- Optional: If you download the Pro version of Titanium Backup you should be able to create a flashable zip file of the Titanium Backup app and your other apps. (I can't provide instructions because I have an old free version which has this functionality, and the new "Pro" version has a different menu layout. On my old free version you hit the "settings" button on your phone. Select "More", and then "Create update.zip". Select "Edify", "User application", and "TitaniumBackup-X.X.X.zip". (Note the name.) This will put a flashable zip file on the root level of your SD card.

4) Download a custom ROM to your PC and then move it to the top level of your SD card. For ZVH you probably want to choose gROM, OptiROM, or HydroROM if you can find it. (I didn't try OptiROM. I slightly prefered HydroROM over gROM.) For ZVD you probably want to choose Reborn ROM, sROM, or Kraven's CM7 ROM. (I've only tried Reborn ROM so far. The CM7 feature set looks amazing though so I'm gonna try that too. Note however that if you download Kraven's CM7, you'll also need to download the Google Apps "GAPPS" zip file and put that file into the top level of your SD card so that you can flash it onto your phone after installing the CM7 ROM. That will give you access to necessary Google Apps, like the Play Store, which are not built-into Kraven's CM7 ROM.) It's actually quite easy to try different ROMs once you're rooted and you've done a Titanium backup (by following steps #4 - #12).

5) Do a "Nandroid backup". A Nandroid backup creates an image of your current ROM for added safety. If you save your Nandroid backup, you can always return your phone to EXACTLY the way it was at the time of the Nandroid backup by doing a "retore" of that Nandroid backup. (See Appendix for restore instructions.) Make sure that you have ample space on your SD card to contain the backup. Make sure you have plenty of free space (at least 400MB) on your SD card for the backup. To do a Nandroid backup:
--A) Turn off the phone.
--B) Boot into recovery mode by simultaneously pressing the power button,
---- the home-button, and the volume-down button until you see the "LG" screen.
---- After several seconds you should be greeted by the Xonia Custom Recovery main menu.
---- (Note: You'll move the highlight up and down with the volume up/down keys.
---- "Settings" key selects. "Back" key goes back. "Home" key toggles the screen off & on.)
--C) Select "backup and restore".
--D) Select "backup". It'll take a a minute or two and give your some feedback. Don't worry.
---- Make sure that is says that it successfully completed the backup.

7) Install the new ROM: From Xonia's main menu, select "install zip from sdcard", then "toggle signature verification" to "Disabled", then select "choose zip from sdcard" and select the custom ROM that you loaded onto your SD card. (It's probably way down at the bottom so scroll down to it. Scrolling up is usually a faster way to get to it.) Confirm. The ROM will load. Sit tight. This takes a minute or two. (Note: If you've installed Kraven's CM7 ROM, you'll also need to install the Google Apps (GAPPS) zip file mentioned in step #4 by selecting "choose zip from sdcard" and then installing the GAPPS zip file that you should have loaded onto your SD card.)

8) If you bought the "Pro" version of Titanium Backup and created a zip file in steop 3C above, then from Xionia's main menu, select "install zip from sdcard", toggle signature verification, then select "choose zip from sdcard" and select the zip file that you stored on the top level of your SD card in step 3C above. If you did not buy the "Pro" version, add your gmail account and login info to the phone and download Titanium Backup from the Play Store. Then launch Titanium Backup and restore the desired apps. (You can do this in batch mode but you probably want to be careful not to re-install apps that might now be built-into your new ROM, e.g. WiFi tethering.)

9) From Xonia's main menu, select "reboot" to use your new ROM. The first time (only) this takes a really long time. It seems even longer if you're new to flashing ROMs. Don't worry. Sit tight.

10) When the phone boots up, it may act like it has come alive for the first time at the store, so you may have to walk through the phone's initial setup procedure, adding your Gmail account. (Optionally, you may want to turn on WiFi if available to speed up any downloads if your 3G service is weak.)

11) Restore your apps, settings, & data: From the app drawer, launch Titanium Backup. Give it superuser access and do whatever it says. Select "Backup/Restore", hit the "Settings" button, select "Batch", and "Restore Missing Apps and All System Data". Confirm each app's install. (You don't have to confirm each install if you buy the full version of Titanium Backup.) Now all of your apps, settings, and data should be sitting on a new, faster, better ROM. (Of course you don't have to do a batch restore. Titanium lets you be more selective about which apps and data you want to restore.) Note: Some would say that it's not a good idea to do a batch restore of everything, because of possible incompatibilities, but in my experience loading a few different custom ROMs, I have not had any issues. You may not be able to install some system apps, like the stock Froyo clock. If you encounter issues wth a particular app, try deleting its data (or deleting & reinstalling the app).

12) You're done! Enjoy! Here are some extra goodies you may want to consider... If overclocking isn't built-into your ROM or an overclocking app isn't included, consider installing an overclocking app like "No Frills CPU Control" (free from the Market/Play-Store) so that you can speed up your phone. A stock Optimus S CPU runs at 600MHz but you should be able to overclock to at least 806MHz (a 34% speed increase), maybe faster or slower depending on your phone, but if it starts glitching or crashing, then back-down the maximum clock speed. Check the box that says "Apply on boot". It's probably best to leave the clock speed "on demand" to save battery life. And with all that extra speed and memory, you may want to consider downloading and installing Adobe Flash for ARMv6 from here (if you'd like to have Flash capability). Depending on your ROM's capability, you may also want to consider installing tethering app like PDANet+ (premium) or the free WiFi Tether (by Muller, Lemons, Buxton, et al) to gain free WiFi tethering/Hotspot capability. [FYI: The settings for "WiFi Tether" should be: Change Device Profile- "LG Optimus S", Change Set-up Method- "WEXT (ad-hoc)"]. I'd also strongly recommend that you implement a memory-expanding app like "Link2SD". Guide link follows.http://androidforums.com/optimus-s-...ry-using-link2sd-w-pros-cons-vs-data2ext.html

13) Clean up. From your PC (via USB) you may want to copy your Nandroid backup onto your PC for safekeeping, and then delete it from your SD card) to free up space on your SD card. You will find your Nandroid backup on your SD card under "clockworkmod/backup". It will be a folder named with a date. DON'T RENAME IT, or else the checksum won't work and you won't be able to use it to restore your phone. You should probably leave the empty "clockworkmod/backup" folders in place so that you can easily put a Nandroid backup in there if you want to do so later (because Xonia looks for the Nandroid backup in that location). You may also want delete the custom ROM's zip file from the top level of your SD card (since that ROM is now loaded into your phone). You may want to move your TitaniumBackup-X.X.X.zip file to your PC. And if you moved music (or something) off of your SD card to make room, you may want to move it back now.

That wasn't so hard was it?

If you want to try another ROM, just do steps #4 - #12.

APPENDIX:

If you have stock baseband versions ZV8, ZV9, ZVC, ZVH, or ZVJ, you can use the following instructions to convert your phone to an unrooted, stock Sprint ZVD (Android v2.2 "Froyo") Optimus S. From there you can either use Sprint's normal "over-the-air" (OTA) procedure to (optionally) upgrade your phone to Sprint's stock firmware, or you can use the guide above to install a custom ROM.

How to make your phone a stock ZVD (Android v2.2 "Froyo") phone:A) Read the introductory part of the main guide (above), including the prerequisites, but don't follow the step-by-step instructions that start with step 1. Note. You should only do this with a stock Sprint recovery.B) Make sure that you have about 100MB of free space on your SD card. You'll only need this space temporarily, so if you don't have enough space, you might want to temporarily move some music or video files to your PC.C) Download Sprint's stock ZVD ROM called "update.zip" from this link on Sprint's website, and save it to your PC.D) Copy that ZVD "update.zip" onto the root directory (i.e. the highest level) of your SD card.E) Turn off the phone.F) Boot into recovery mode by simultaneously pressing the power button,---- home-button, and volume-down button until you see the "LG" screen.---- After several seconds you should be greeted by the recovery main menu. ---- (Note: You'll move the highlight up and down with the volume up/down keys.---- "Settings" key selects. "Back" key goes back. "Home" key toggles the screen off & on.)G) Select &#8220;apply sdcard:update.zip&#8221;. It'll take 3-4 minutes to install. If it hangs for more than 5 minutes, pull the battery, reboot into recovery, select "factory reset/data wipe", and then redo this step F. Doing a factory reset/data wipe" will erase the data, apps, and settings in your phone's internal memory, but it won't delete anything (like music or photos) from your phone's SD card.H) If you're downgrading from ZVJ, reboot back into recovery mode and redo step "F" above. Otherwise skip to step "I" below.I) Select "Reboot&#8221;. (It will take a long time to boot up. Don&#8217;t worry.) Your phone is now an unrooted with stock Sprint ZVD firmware and with a stock recovery.J) Clean up by deleting the update.zip file from your SD card.

Now what?

If you want to fool somebody into believing that the phone has never been rooted, you should probably delete the entire "clockworkmod" folder, the "titanium" folder from your SD card, as well as any zip files that you loaded, onto your SD card.

If you want to update the phone to stock Sprint ZVJ firmware, then follow the normal Sprint over-the-air (OTA) upgrade procedures. (From the home screen, hit the "Settings button", then select "Settings-> About phone. Then select "System Updates" and "Update Firmware".

How to do a Nandroid restore:
If you ever want to restore your phone using your Nandroid backup, you'll have to make sure that the Nandroid backup folder is located in the "clockworkmod/backup" folder on your SD card and that you have a custom recovery installed. Then just boot into the custom recovery, select "backup and restore", select "restore", and then select your Nandroid backup folder. You can only do such a Nandroid restore if the bseband that's running on your phone is the same as the baseband of the Nandroid backup.

Razz, thanks for a wonderful guide. That's a lot of work and attention to detail -- which makes it sooo extra nice. I have the Optimus S (as you would guess) and am excited to get started on this guide and (then) take the next step to ICS. I'm @ ZVD/Android 2.2.2. and the jump to to ICS appears to be within reach very soon.

I followed your guide step by step and was able to root, update to zvd and then install the rebornROM.
Everything worked good, with no glitches.
Just one question: how do I activate the hot spot, I downloaded foxfi but I don't see it and when I try the activate hotspot from the settings it kicks me out. Does this rom support hotspot? That's the main reason I wanted to upgrade.
Thanks.

With RebornROM I use Quick Settings (by Halfbit) to launch WiFi Hotspot. It works perfectly with the old version of Quick Settings that I'm using. I don't know if that feature is still part of the newer versions of Quick Settings. From within Quick Settings, you may have to hit the "settings" button, hit "Customize", and then drag WiFi Hotspot up from the hidden features. Quick Settings is also nice to have on your homescreen to quickly access setings like WiFi, 3G, flashlight mode, etc.

I guess that FoxFi would also work. If you use your PC's web browser to go to the Google Play Store for FoxFi you'll see in their product description that Sprint won't allow customers to download FoxFi from the Play Store anymore. However, the developer provides instructions for downloading FoxFi directly from their website at the following link.http://foxfi.com/bin

Thanks Razzmatazz,
Actually I found out from another post that there is a widget for the hotspot in reborn Rom, has to press screen, select new widget and select hotspot, it works great. But is nice to know that quick-settings works too since I was using that with my zvc version.
I went to the foxfi website but it says that it wont work with the Optimus S phone.

By the way if I want to update from zvd to zvH ( I would like to try the Hydra Rom) should I follow the same instructions as in the Apendix? Just Download the zvh Update.zip.

I have another question for you if you don''t mind: would this rom affect the data network speed? I did an speed-test and could not get more than 20KB, you tube or facebook wont load, may be was my location but I used to get faster speed before, just wondering is there is an issue with that.
Otherwise the phone works great, really responsive, photos load fast and apps start right away. Can't wait for the ICS!
Thanks again.

I found out from another post that there is a widget for the hotspot in reborn Rom, has to press screen, select new widget and select hotspot, it works great. But is nice to know that quick-settings works too since I was using that with my zvc version.
I went to the foxfi website but it says that it wont work with the Optimus S phone.

Click to expand...

I didn't notice Reborn's hotspot widget before. Thanks. Good to know. My daughter is using FoxFi on her HydroROM-based Optimus S. I just checked the FoxFi website and it doesn't say that FoxFi won't work with the Optimus S. It just says that Sprint removed it from the Play Store.

By the way if I want to update from zvd to zvH ( I would like to try the Hydra Rom) should I follow the same instructions as in the Apendix? Just Download the zvh Update.zip.

Click to expand...

I haven't tried it so I can't say definitively, but I think you could just follow the instructions in the Appendix where you twice apply the update (substituting the ZVH update for the ZVD update of course), and then root your stock ZVH phone using optiauto-sfx.exe, etc.

My daughter has HydroROM. It's nice, but I don't think it's really much different than Reborn ROM. I don't think it's worth the effort. And considering that ICS is likely to be ported to ZVD before ZVH, I really don't think it's worth the effort to switch to ZVH right now (unless you find it fun to do-- which is understandable).

I have another question for you if you don''t mind: would this rom affect the data network speed?

Click to expand...

Your speed depends on signal strength (how close to the tower), signal quality (what other radio signals are in the area), Sprint's capacity (how many nearby users are using it), and your target website's capacity. The 3G & WiFi download speeds on my Reborn ROM-based Optimus S are the same as they've always been. (Maybe a bit faster thanks to overclocking.) On 3G I get about 640kbps at my house and up to 1.3Mbps in strong-signal locations.

RazzMatazz:I think I will just stay put and wait for ICS, my Optimus works really fast now and with titanium app I was able to free up my memory by over 50%!
Still can not figure out my crappy network speed, did the same with the stock rom so it's not because of reborn, called sprint but they
Were no much help I guess I'm in a bad location, although it used to get up to 1.2mb.
Thanks!

That's a bummer to hear about the speed. Not sure if they fixed it where I am but the 3G connection went to 1.4Mbps down and 300kbps for up. Maybe a fluke but it's been awhile since I've seen this sort of speed.

Hello,
Excellently laid out instructions, thank you. I'm having trouble though. I run optiauto-sfx.exe and it simply tells me it's waiting for my device to be connected. I went over all the steps to make sure I did everything right, I did. But then I noticed that when I enable debugging on my phone, my computer no longer recognizes that the phone's connected. Is there something I can do about that?

Hello,
Excellently laid out instructions, thank you. I'm having trouble though. I run optiauto-sfx.exe and it simply tells me it's waiting for my device to be connected. I went over all the steps to make sure I did everything right, I did. But then I noticed that when I enable debugging on my phone, my computer no longer recognizes that the phone's connected. Is there something I can do about that?

This was amazing and finally the guide I've been looking for. Everything worked awesome loaded ZVD, rooted it and then used Kraven's cm7 ROM. Which by the way is working great. Not only did I achieve all this from your guide/links but I achieved with no prior knowledge of how to do this at all, just from reading online. The only thing I seem to be having trouble with is after I loaded the new ROM it appears I do not have the market/play store. I dont know if this is due to something going wrong from rooting it or loading the new ROM but I would really like to know how to get the market back up so I can check out the apps you are mentioning above so I can really boost the performance and take advantage of the root/update.

If you know how to fix this please let me know!! and thank you again for this guide it was so helpful, clear descriptions, connected every dot and didnt leave a stone unturned. Def 5 stars!!

Ok update: I found "google login service" in DevTools however when I click on it, it says "The application DevTools (process com.android.development) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again." Im assuming thats where I login on my gmail account to activate the play store/market? Hope this helps.

My LG Is Poop: I'm glad to hear that the guide worked for you... mostly anyway. The custom ROMs that I've tried had the Google Apps (GAPPS), including the Play Store, built-in, so my guide was based on my experience with those ROMs. However, in looking at the thread for the Kraven CM7 ROM that you downloaded, I see that, in the section #3 of Kraven's original post (under "Google Apps") it says that it is required that you also download Google apps (GAPPS) and flash them onto your custom ROM. Apparently Kraven feels that it's better to keep the GAPPS separate from his ROM so that they can be updated independently. (I've now edited my guide to account for that.) You'll need to:
1) Download GAPPS to your PC. (You can see section #3 of Kraven's post, but the latest version of GAPPS posted by Kraven is HERE.)
2) Connect your phone to your PC via USB, turn on the USB storage, and move the GAPPS zip file to the top level of your SD card.
3) Turn off USB storage and reboot into recovery mode (as described in step 5B above.)
4) From the Xonia custom recovery, select "Install zip from sdcard".
5) Select "toggle signature verification" to make it "Disabled".
6) Select "choose zip from sdcard". Select the GAPPS zip that you downloaded, apply it, and confirm.
7) From the Xonia main menu, select "reboot system now".

Your phone will reboot and you should have Google apps like "Play Store". Then you can resume from step #9 above in my original post. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Awesome thank you Im going to try it right now. Once I clicked on kravens ROM I got lost in a sea of terms and other things I've never heard of lol I was reading it quite awhile till I finally found the latest download for it.

And for this being the one thing you left I think I can forgive you! haha without this my phone wouldnt be where it is right now! Also do you know of anyway to get android 4.0 (ICS) on the optimus?

There are some developers working on porting Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, or "ICS") onto Optimus S. At this point, Kraven seems to be the closest to completion of a useable ICS on the Optimus S. (He's porting the ClockworkMod 9 "CM9" to the Optimus S ZVD, which he calls "Cold As Ice".) Kraven has posted a somewhat buggy (Alpha 9) version for download, but the camcorder, the camera preview, and the Bluetooth audio don't work properly, and I think you have to flash an extra zip file to fix MMS and perhaps some other things. I tried it, and it's pretty awesome except for those bugs. However, with the current bugs I wouldn't recommend it for full-time "daily driver" use yet. However, as of yesterday (4/29/12) it seems that Kraven has figured out some solutions to these problems, so his next release (which should be any day now) might fix those problems and be good enough to use as a daily driver. If that happens, I'll switch me and my family to Kraven's CM9 ROM and I'll update my original post above with a recommmendation. (I want this guide to be easy, and so I didn't want to steer people into buggy ROMs.)

Awesome thats great news, hope he can sort it all out cause lord knows guys like me cant lol. I went through the gapps download installed on the sd card and followed all the steps but both times I tried it, it said installation aborted. I have no clue what it could be thats holding it up.

1) You should have downloaded the ZVD update.zip file from Sprint's website and placed it in the top level of your SD card. Did you do that? (If you didn't, then you&#8217;ll need to put it there using a card reader if necessary.)

2) Folllow steps F through I in the Appendix of my original post. (I've edited them to account for the stock recovery, instead of the Xonia custom recovery.) If that doesn't work, then it's possible that your update.zip file is corrupted, so you may want to try to download it and copy it over again.

The update.zip got stuck as I don't have much patience I removed the battery, wiped the cache, reset to factory default and applied ZVD ROM. Now the version is showing as ZVD..
I have downloaded the Reborn ROM. Anyway it got reset and all the data got wiped off I now need not worry about taking backup. I don't get any "install zip from sdcard" option at all. Rooting is NOT successful using optiauto-sfx.exe. Do I need to root the device in order to install the Reborn ROM ?

You need to flash the ZVD update.zip twice-- once for the baseband and once for the OS. If you've done that, your baseband should be ZVD, your SW version should be ZVD, and your Android version should be (I think) 2.2.2.

You need to root the phone and install a custom recovery in order to flash the Reborn ROM. Please follow the step-by-step instructions in the main part of the guide above, and be sure not to skip any steps. If optiauto-sfx.exe doesn't work the first time, try it a few times. What error message does it give?

I am able to root and install Reborn ROM. The only mistake I did was I didn't take Nadriod Backup and unfortunately I didn't back up my contacts also. But overall the instructions are clear and its my fault to miss some steps.. Thank you very much for this blog and your timely response..